After a rally in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump autographed a “copy of Playboy from March 1990, featuring the billionaire himself on the cover,” CNN reports.
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The Case for the ‘Innovation Party’
Jim Vandehei: “Normal America is right that Establishment America has grown fat, lazy, conventional and deserving of radical disruption. And the best, perhaps only way to disrupt the establishment is by stealing a lot of Donald Trump’s and Bernie Sanders’s tricks and electing a third-party candidate.”
“Mr. Trump’s vulgar approach to politics is a terrific middle finger to the establishment but a terrible political and governing paradigm. Same goes for Sanders-style socialism. But if someone turned the critique, passion and disdain shared by the two movements into a new one, they could change the system in meaningful ways. Only an outside force can knock Washington out of its governing rut—and the presidency is the only place with the power to do it.”
Trump Rejects New Adviser’s Suggestions
Donald Trump “is bristling at efforts to implement a more conventional presidential campaign strategy, and has expressed misgivings about the political guru behind them, Paul Manafort, for overstepping his bounds,” Politico reports.
“Now Trump is taking steps to return some authority to Manafort’s chief internal rival, campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.”
GOP Primary Calendar Shifts Trump’s Way
David Wasserman: “Add it all up, and Trump has dominated three of the four quadrants, losing only HighRed. Trump’s two largest leads have come in the two blue quadrants, thanks to Cruz’s weakness there. That’s a drastic departure from our pre-primary expectations about ‘blue zone’ GOP voters last fall, and it’s critical to understanding why Trump has a built-in edge in the remaining 15 contests.”
“If we use the same technique to divide the areas represented by the 2,472 delegates that will go to the Republican convention in Cleveland into four quadrants, we can see that New York’s primary marked a sharp left turn on the calendar. From New York through the end of the primaries, 51 percent of delegates will be awarded in HighBlue — Cruz’s weakest quadrant — a huge 32 percentage point jump from primaries before New York.”
Sanders Admits He Can’t Flip Superdelegates
Sen. Bernie Sanders conceded on MSNBC that he “faces narrow odds in convincing super delegates to switch their allegiances from the Democratic presidential front-runner, and instead hand him the nomination.”
Said Sanders: “At the end of the process, frankly, if we are behind in the pledged delegates, I think it’s very hard for us to win.”
“Sanders reiterated that his campaign plans to remain in the race through the California primary on June 7. In the face of a narrow path toward winning the Democratic nomination outright, Sanders said he was holding out for superdelegates to reconsider their support of party front-runner, Hillary Clinton.”
Why the 2016 Veepstakes Could Very Chaotic
“Here’s an overlooked consequence to the protracted presidential nomination fights in both parties: a historically short period of time for the eventual nominee to effectively vet his or her vice presidential options before making the eventual pick,” the Washington Post reports.
“Combine the lack of a clear primary winner by the spring with the decision by both parties to move up their national conventions to the month of July and you get a very, very short window for the nominees to pick the person who will be, literally, a heartbeat away from the presidency.”
Trump Agrees to be Interviewed by Megyn Kelly
Donald Trump has agreed to appear on Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly’s prime time broadcast special on May 17, the Los Angeles Times reports.
“It will be Kelly’s first sit down with the front runner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination since the real estate billionaire clashed with her at the first GOP primary debate. It has been nearly a year since she interviewed Trump, who has been a frequent guest on other Fox News Channel programs.”
Young Voters Prefer Clinton to Trump
A new Harvard Institute of Politics poll of young voters finds Hillary Clinton the clear front-runner over Donald Trump to win the White House in 2016, 61% to 25%.
“More than three in five (61%) prefer that a Democrat win the White House, while 33% prefer a Republican. The divide of 28 points is nearly double what it was in Spring 2015, when the divide was 15 percentage points (55% Democrat; 40% Republican).”
Stopping Trump May Depend on Indiana
“Donald Trump is poised to sweep five states’ Republican primaries on the Eastern Seaboard on Tuesday, but his rivals are already looking ahead to next week’s contest in Indiana, which may be their last chance to keep Mr. Trump from clinching the party’s presidential nomination,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“It is a must-win state for anti-Trump forces. If Mr. Trump wins in Indiana after his expected victories on Tuesday, it will be much harder for his rivals to keep him from garnering the 1,237 pledged delegates he needs to win the Republican presidential nomination.”
Trump Quote of the Day
“I have never seen a human being eat in such a disgusting fashion. I’m always telling my young son, Barron, I’m saying — and I, always with my kids, all of them — I say, ‘Children, small little bites. Small. This guy takes a pancake, and he’s shoving it in his mouth. It’s disgusting! Do you want that for your president? I don’t think so, I don’t think so; honestly, it’s disgusting.”
— Donald Trump, quoted by the Washington Post, about Gov. John Kasich’s eating habits.
Trump Rips Cruz and Kasich Over Alliance
Donald Trump “blasted his remaining two GOP presidential rivals after they announced an agreement Sunday to coordinate in upcoming primary contests with the aim of preventing Trump from securing the nomination,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Trump: “Honestly, it shows such total weakness, and it’s pathetic when two longtime insider politicians — establishment guys, whether you like it or not — have to collude, have to get together to try to beat a guy that really speaks what the people want.”
Judge Upholds Voter ID Law In North Carolina
“A federal judge on Monday upheld North Carolina’s voter identification law, delivering a clear victory to Republican leaders in this state who defended it as a safeguard against fraud,” the New York Times reports.
“North Carolina’s voter identification law requires people to display one of six credentials, such as a driver’s license or passport, before casting a ballot. Those who cannot may complete a “reasonable impediment declaration” and cast a provisional ballot.”
Former Student Seeks $1.8 Million from Hastert
“A former student of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert filed a lawsuit Monday demanding that the ex-speaker pay more than $1.8 million to fulfill an agreement he allegedly made to pay $3.5 million to compensate for sexual abuse committed against the man three decades ago,” Politico reports.
Obama Works to Strengthen Democrats
Washington Post: “Obama has presided over a greater loss of electoral power for his party than any two-term president since World War II. And 2016 represents one last opportunity for him to reverse that trend.”
“The first big tests of the rebuilding efforts come Tuesday in Pennsylvania, where Obama is taking the unusual step of wading into two contested Democratic primaries, endorsing Senate hopeful Katie McGinty and Josh Shapiro, a Montgomery County official and early supporter of his who is hoping to become state attorney general.”
Indiana Has Been Voting for 3 Weeks Already
The Lid: “According to the Indiana Secretary of State’s office, more than 60,000 Republican primary ballots had already been requested by Friday, before Kasich announced that he would not be campaigning in the state. That’s twice the equivalent GOP ballot requests at this time in 2012. Combine that with the fact that a) Kasich is still on the ballot and b) he actively said today that he still wants Indiana voters to support him, and we could have a recipe for a vote that is still majorly split in the Hoosier State, regardless of what the non-Trump candidates have to say about it.”
The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln
In the mail: A Self-Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln Vol. I, 1809 – 1849 by Sidney Blumenthal.
“The first of a multi-volume history of Lincoln as a political genius—from his obscure beginnings to his presidency, assassination, and the overthrow of his post-Civil War dreams of Reconstruction. This first volume traces Lincoln from his painful youth, describing himself as ‘a slave,’ to his emergence as the man we recognize as Abraham Lincoln.”
Cruz Vetting Fiorina as Possible Running Mate
Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign is vetting Carly Fiorina as a potential running mate, the Weekly Standard reports.
Fiorina has met with members of the Cruz campaign and has given them financial disclosures and other documentation. However, “no offers” have yet been made.
